Performance Help & Suggestions please!!!

Hey, is anyone out there able to help...

I have a computer, which, although it is Compaq, is for all intents and purposes a decent computer:

Compaq Presario Model#: SR1937UK
OS: Windows XP Home
CPU: Pentium D Dual Core 940 3.2GHz
RAM: 2x1GB PC2-4200
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 7500 LE 512MB
Mobo: Asterope2

There should be a semi-decent amount of power coming out of this thing. Multitasking shouldn't be a push. Large programs and background programs shouldn't be too sluggish, I shouldn't think, should they?

Well, my friend thought that I may be losing out somewhere, he suggested:

CPU isn't banging out everything it should
/
Graphics aren't working properly and not seperating CPU usage

Can anyone suggest how I may:

1 - be able to upgrade on a low and high budget (mobo, cpu, graphics, ram)
2 - discover IF anything is malfunctioning and thus not bringing out all the power?

All replies welcome!!

Thanks!

 

It does have some pretty good specs. The video card is lacking a bit, and your power supply (even though it's not listed) is probably a bit weak. If it's the stock power supply, you should think about upgrading it, along with the video card. The 7500's aren't high end gaming cards. I couldn't find any really detailed info about the 7500LE, other than it's a lesser card than a 7300GT, and if you research the 7300GT, and you take into account that your card is less than that, you'll see that your video card is lacking, big time. Try running some assorted benchmarks on all your components; benchmark apps are available for RAM, CPU, video, hard drives, you name it. Plus, you can usually go online and compare your bench results against others to see if your hardware is performing equally to someone else that has the same gear....

 

when looking for a video upgrade, try to get a card with a 256bit bus. Your current card has a 128bit bus (maybe a 64bit bus :eek ). Doubling the bus is way more important than the amount of RAM on the card, and I think your 7500 uses TurboCache which means it has X amount on board (256mb I think) but it will share some of the motherboard RAM to bring the total up to 512mb. Oh yeah... performing some regular maintenance on your PC can increase performance also. I've seen some dramatic changes in overall responsiveness by simply cleaning the junk files followed by a thourough drive defrag... here's a good link about PC maintenance http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=106650

...and Welcome to Major Geeks! :major

 

Cheers mate!

Any chance you have a few suggestions as for low-mid-high end budget Graphics options that are compatible with me machine?

As for maintenance, I'm good like that. I use everything from Ad-Aware, ASquared to Wise-Registry and Wise-Disk Cleaner, not to mention CC, Sweepi and the XP Defrag and IOBit Defrag. Also, I have a 500GB external which hosts most of my films, pictures and tv files, a 250GB internal which has my music and not much more (for quicker access, and no need to switch on), and finally a 300GB internal for generic downloads, programs and the OS.

I was thinking of upgrading my OS HDD to a Raptor, and just having the system and programs on there, and all other files elsewhere, will this make it slightly faster too?

Thanks a lot! :major

 

I would invest in a better video card before the Raptor and then use the PC for a while to see if the Raptor is even necessary. As for a video card recommendation, let me do some research, and I'll post some links for you here in a little while.... I'm sure some other folks would be happy to help too

 

Thank you!